Acheta

Introduction The Acheta Domesticus most commonly known as the house cricket, it is a brown to black colour. These Crickets are omnivores, meaning they eat meat and organic materials depending on what is in their surroundings. The house cricket’s natural habitat is in and around logs and woodlands, underneath rocks and in soggy land scraps that are full of weeds. When the house crickets are around humans, they tend to be found closer to houses that’s why they got their common name house cricket, mostly

they wouldn’t normally eat. For this same reason, hydration levels of an organism may play a role in diet preference. Understanding diet preference in a species like humans may seem trivial but not for something like a house cricket. House crickets, Acheta domesticus are thought to be endemic to northwest Africa or southwest Asia (Weismann and Rentz 1977, Ghouri 1961). Currently this species has a near cosmopolitan distribution, and is typically associated with anthropogenic establishments. Females

For this lab 6 male Acheta domesticus were isolated in plastic containers, each was placed in a container that was 5 cm height and had 5.5 cm radius. Each of these containers was punctured with 10-15 minuscule holes for breathing on the lid and 5-8 holes on the sides. Inside of each container a damp paper towel was placed on the bottom and 2 pieces of food were placed on the paper towel. The Acheta domesticus were kept isolated in their personal containers for 7 days. At the end of these 7 days we

The Aggression between Acheta domesticus males The male Acheta domesticus show behaviors of aggression to increase their chances for reproduction with females and improve their fitness. The resident males are more likely to win in combats against non-resident males in environments with a higher value of resources. Studies have also shown that when female chemical cues are present, the violent behaviors in resident males increase, which leads to better success in contests. Consequently, when the

Pathogens and parasites are very dangerous and lethal to not only vertebrate species such as animals, but invertebrate species like insects as well. Insects have to heavily rely on their innate immune system, which is an immediate response in quickly destroying invaders (Alberts et al 2002). Melanism is a key response to insects’ innate defenses that serves many functions like improving fitness. Melanin darkens the insects’ cuticle, which is facilitated by the enzyme phenoloxidase that converts dopamine

Polistes wasps (Pardi 1948a), Sphecius wasps (Mr Norman Lin, personal communication), and crayfish (Bovbjerg 1953; Lowe 1956) aggressive behavior has been split into four or five levels. (Alexander 1961) The experimental organism in this experiment was Acheta domesticus, more commonly known as the house

Introduction Animals usually compete for resources, mostly food, and the motivation to fight is directly related to how much of a resource exists in that environment according to Nosil (2002). The residency effects of House Crickets most likely follows the trend of other species; animals tend to be territorial and the space that they reside in is their space. They will defend it if another animal invades and poses a threat. This was already assumed prior to the House Cricket experiment. The House

There are 900 species of crickets; one of the most common species, used a lot of times for bait, is the house cricket or Acheta Domesticus. Most species of crickets are nocturnal meaning they are more active at night. House crickets tend to be found in the Eastern part of the United States. House Crickets have shorter lifespans than most other species of crickets living only about three months while other cricket species such as the mole cricket can live for about a year. Males are the ones who

Elias Kachadoorian Metabolic Rate of Crickets Introduction: The Acheta domesticus, house cricket, has an average metabolic rate of 36.19 (Kolluru, Chappell, and Zuk 2004). The cricket is an ectothermic organism which means that it has no ability to create heat inside its own body and must rely on outside sources. (Kolluru, Chappell, and Zuk 2004). An endotherm by contrast is an organism with the ability to maintain homeostasis including temperature without the need of outside sources. Warm-blooded

Introduction Insects are aerobic organism that utilizes cellular respiration to obtain energy. One key component of this process is oxygen, which is required to react with organix molecules to produce CO2, water and energy. In insects, their respiratory system consists of a complex branched network of tubes called the tracheal system. Insects take in oxygen in exchange for CO2 using the openings in the tracheal system located on their exoskeleton (www.amentsoc.org). These openings, which are called